Sunday, August 28, 2022

...to the Moon!

NASA's long-awaited return-to-the-moon Artemis mission is scheduled to launch tomorrow.  Prior to launch, it seems largely underwhelming.  What amounts to a modified space shuttle launch system cobbled together with a somewhat underpowered stage system will push an updated Apollo craft to lunar orbit.  

Reminds me of how the Russians continue to access space with basically the same rocket system Nazi scientists built for them 70 years ago.  The US human spaceflight program hasn't really made any dramatic innovation since the first shuttle launched some 40+ years ago.  Even that wasn't what it was originally billed to be.

Still, I'm excited about it.  It may have been a bloated, inefficient government project, but it's a step in the direction of the future.  There's optimism in that, to be sure.